Eddy woke up, realizing he was sitting at a desk. He looked to his left and saw Double D slumped forward, his beanie leaning off his head, showing his medium blonde hair. To his right, he saw Kevin, and made a glare when he saw he was waking up. Eddy fixed his skull cap and straightened his pants, and sat back down when he felt something finally constricting on his neck. He started to stroke his neck when he felt something metallic, almost like a collar wrapped around his neck. He began to pull on it when Johnny grabbed his shoulder from behind and said,
"I don't think you should do that."
Eddy turned around and to his surprise; he saw that the loner he would always pick on because of his big head had a collar around his neck, too. He and Johnny turned around and examined the classroom, and saw that everyone had collars exactly like theirs. In the back of the room, he saw that the cousin of the Kanker sisters was just sitting back and smoking a cigarette (Eddy envied that he was smoking one of his favorite cigarette brands, a pack of Morlbarry cigarettes.). When he came out of his examination trance, Double D tapped him on the shoulder.
"Eddy, is this one of your pranks?" said Double D, "Because it isn't funny anymore."
"Double D, wise up." Responded Eddy, "How in hell could I bring you guys all by myself to this place?"
Double D realized what he just said and looked away, with a puzzled look on his face. As he looked around, again, he realized he was inside a classroom. He dreaded to be back in a classroom, so he considered it being a part of a Scared Straight program. When he turned around, he saw the different cliques waking from their slumber. As, they came out of their state, Eddy walked around and looked at the others. The rest of the class had the exact same collar on themselves, and when Eddy looked out the window, military helicopters were looking inside the building. This wasn't any ordinary class trip, Eddy thought.
As Eddy sat down to collect his thoughts, a man dressed in a plain blue suit walked into the room. He was being escorted by Marines carrying machine guns with them. Eddy stared at the man and looked at Ed, who was still knocked out from the trip (everyone else was awake…why wasn't he?)
"Hello, class. How is everyone today?" said the man.
Eddy recognized that voice. It was his eighth grade chemistry teacher. He and Eddy had been at each other's throats since the first day of school, when Eddy began mouthing off to him during lectures. Eddy shook Ed awake, and pointed towards the man.
"Mr. Hardwick? What are you doing here?" asks Eddy.
"I'll explain that in a few minutes. In the meantime, Eddy, you keep your mouth shut." Says Mr. Hardwick.
"Whatever, Mr. Hard-dick." Says Eddy, who receives a slap in the face.
Eddy stood up and got into the teacher's face, but he decided to sit down, planning on kicking the crap out of him. When he sat back down, Kevin began to snicker, and that provoked Eddy into punching him in the arm.
"Now, class. As you can see, we have soldiers here. I will explain that also. But, for now, let say something."
Mr. Hardwick walked around the room, examining the class and the students.
"For those of you who don't remember me, I am Mr. Hardwick. I was the chemistry teacher in your eighth grade. I taught a few of you, and I've been having problems with some of you…but that's not the point."
"The reason why you're here is that you have been assigned a special assignment."
Eddy groaned and leaned back into his chair, crossing his arms as he dusted off his heavy jacket.
"The assignment for you today is…is to kill each other off."
The room went silent as the words bounced around the room with an echo.
"The whole reason you will be killing each other off is you have been selected as one of the classes to participate in a new government program. Well, it's not new, Japan has one just like ours, but the wannabe kings of this country decided to become like them."
As the kids registered what he had just said, Mr. Hardwick went up to the chalkboard and wrote the words; Battle Royale: the American Dream. (Let's just say the Americans were to bored and lazy to make up another name for the program.)
Eddy tapped Double D on his shoulder and whispered something into his ear. Double D looked at him with a disgusted look on his face, but looked back to the teacher, who was standing next to the chalkboard.
"Now, class. We are going to watch a film, explaining the rules of Battle Royale. Pay attention, because it might save your life.
Mr. Hardwick popped in an old VHS tape, and turned on the television set.
Hello, and welcome to Battle Royale: the American Dream! You have been selected to take part in an American version of a Japanese military program. As your teacher might've already told you, you will be on a huge reservation of land, and for three days you will fight to the death. When you head on out, you will be issued a backpack filled with goodies, called a daypack. They will contain food and water, a map, compass, pencils for when you write things off, and a weapon. Now remember, we won't be complete copycats of the Japanese, as they select their weapons at random. You will be issued a weapon that will be based on your personality. Like this axe, used like a tool but sharp and dangerous. That might describe one of you. One more thing, the collars on your neck is actually a bomb. If you step into a forbidden zone, shown here, the collar will detonate! BOOM! Or if no one is killed within 24 hours, your collars will also explode! So be careful and good luck, brave soldiers!
The kids sat there, registering what the girl on the TV had said. Eddy shook his head and brought out the kids around him out of their state as well. He looked toward the teacher, who began passing about pencils and pieces of paper.
"Now, repeat after me and write this down. We will kill each other, we will win, we will survive, and we will die."
The kids did exactly what they said, and they put their pencils down.
"Now, I will list off the names one by one, until we reach the last person. Good luck out there!"
The kids waited anxiously for their names to be called, trying to get the idea of their best friends, brothers, sisters, cousins and crushes will be at their throats.
"This is going to be one hell of a battle, I hope I don't die." Eddy said to himself.
They all sat there in silence, waiting for their impending doom to come….
